Digital Technology Dimensions From The Perspective Of Socio-Emotional Development At School Children

Abstract

The new era of digital immersion has arrived faster than we ever anticipated. The importance of digital instruments has proved vital for the works of many teachers and children in the current times of March 2020. The new focus is put on the kind of activities children access through their digital devices and the outcome of these activities. Teachers have been using digital instruments to facilitate their teaching for children outside the classroom and the benefits of this are still to be found. We might have a gap in knowledge or we might find the perfect balance between online learning and face-to-face methods. We are still learning and improving and there has never been a more excellent time for self-improvement and self-awareness. There is still a missing element of social and emotional connection between the teacher and the pupil and we are currently trying to fill that gap. How children see their digital instruments is something to consider. Their own window into the world of technology makes a better understanding for future improved experiences. This paper focused on children’s self-view of digital technology usage. Teachers and parents can make sense of the children’s perceptions and emotions during online connections and learning

Keywords: Well-beingself-awarenesssocial interactiononline gamesprimary school children

Introduction

New era of digital technology, all developments in all areas occur at a fast moving pace and this includes also the development of children’s social and emotional skills. These skills include social interaction, emotional awareness and self-regulation. Along this path of discovery and accumulation of experience, children encounter all kinds of instruments that they try to use in acquiring self-awareness. Teachers and parents have an important role in managing this acquisitions and offering the most reliable sources for knowledge through engaging activities. Children will chose to play video games with someone else and parents have a role in choosing the best games for their children for a meaningful and complete emotional and social learning experience (Maitland et al., 2018). The activities which children chose to do online aren’t all limited to informal environments (i.e., at home, in the park), but also in formal environments (i.e., in school breaks). These actions that the children undertake have a tendency to increase the time spent in online interactions and less in live interactions, when they chose to chat/play online on different social media platforms or online gaming activities (Schilhab, 2017). The study suggests that the use of tablets (i.e., iPads) in school interferes with the time spent by the children in social offline interactions and it also explored the role that the school has in ensuring children with the proper technological literacy that will help them engage in socio-emotional learning during their time between class hours. More and more schools implement digitalization methods that help both the teacher and the pupil in having meaningful learning experiences. The new “electronic” alphabet mentioned by Glava and Baciu (2015) in their paper seems to be more present than ever in children’s daily lives. Computers, laptops, smartphones, interactive whiteboards are all part of the digital technology that the teacher could and will use at least once a week in their teaching process.

Problem Statement

Information, Media & Technology Skills are among the 21st century skills to be learned by children of all ages and to continue to acquire these skills along with adulthood because of the importance of these skills. These skills include - Information Literacy, Media Literacy and ICT (Information, Communications and Technology) Literacy and are necessary for an informed and capable citizen for the 21st century that means being able to express a wide range of skills ready for use for people to be successful in life and work as well. Transfer of ICT skills from the level of teaching to that of learning has its challenges and is certainly never automatically accomplished (Manea & Stan, 2018).

Educators and policy-makers have overlooked the role that digital games have in children’s lives outside school and the reasoning behind this kind of activities (Jung Huh, 2017). It is easy to consider that playing online games on their tablets or phones is bad for the child, but the use of these devices seems to be a coping mechanism for the child of the 21st century. Caregivers have a responsibility in providing the child with correct and entertaining activities rich of meaningful learning experience, but there seems to be a discrepancy between “want” and “need”. The parents will give the child the instruments that they would consider proper for the 21st century, but will not always provide the skills to use these technological means. It would appear that at least online games can moderately improve “Executive Function - focused concentration, ignoring extraneous stimuli, and planning complex sequences of actions to achieve a goal” (Fietzer & Chin, 2017, p. 167). The skills that children develop during game play can be a base for certain abilities that can be transferred towards other daily cognitive activities in school. Attention and problem solving seem to be highly represented in the gaming activities as children are confronted with identifying patterns and puzzle solving in most games suited for children.

Research Questions

The hypothesis was that by using games online frequently the children would show preference for digital activities and that their socio-emotional behaviour would be revealed.

The questions of the current study considered the type of games children play, their interaction in the game, how they make sense of the games features.

Purpose of the Study

There is a continuous concern for children’s use of digital technology online/offline and there is a consensus in regards to benefits and threats alike for the use of unsupervised games and other activities that children partake in their everyday life. The study aimed to identify children’s preferred games, frequency of play, and source of the game. The second goal focused on looking further into the social interactions and emotional expression that children might have accessing their favourite games online.

The hypothesis was that by using games online frequently the children would show preference for digital activities and that their socio-emotional behaviour would be revealed.

Research Methods

Findings

Current trends have an impact of the type of games children chose to play. They can be influenced by media advertisement, internet and TV ads, pop-up from different sites the children find and navigate the internet, media influencers, siblings, friends or even parents. Notably at least 2-3 games were common in the top games that the children preferred. Furthermore, they either preferred playing team games or solo games, when they are the main character (Figure 01). Out of the number of children 35.1% of them prefer to play games that give them the chance to be in control, as leading character, 19.3% prefer games that are based on team play and 19.3% also prefer construction games (e.g., Minecraft). From the female participants 27.5% play solo games and 22.5% play construction games, followed by 17.5% who chose to play strategy games. The percentage of males who chose to play solo games was 22.5% followed by team games chosen by 17.5%.

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Considering the game aspects the study focused on relating on the perceived quality of the game and the appeal per total. Graphics, characters, action and story were taken into consideration (Table 1 ). Children have high consideration of the game they play and consider the game to be satisfactory in all aspects. The frequency of play is rather diverse ranging from 35% of the children playing on a regular basis and 20% only rarely playing games online.

We calculated Pearson correlations between frequency of play and gender and we found a positive correlation, but it doesn’t have a significant statistical importance such being also the case for the Pearson correlation between frequencies of play and age where we obtained a negative correlation (Table 2 ). Games are procured online and 52.5% of the children said the games are free.

Social interactions are a part of the online world and have an effect on the way the children perceive the internet world and the game in effect. The children in the study had a less influence for social interactions considering the level of positive scoring for the four categories of questions included in the process (Figure 02 ).

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The role that children assume in the game varies accordingly to the type of game played and most of the roles identified are: leader, strategist and constructor (each with 15%), soldier/fighter (27.5%), negotiator and architect (each with 5%) and other roles (17.5%). Playing games gives a certain level of emotional expression and the type of emotions have a range when considering the analysis for the emotions expressed in the game and after winning or losing a favorite game (Table 3 ). Losing a game creates another range of emotions and for the purpose of this study the answers were divided into three categories: positive, negative and neutral emotions (Figure 03 ).

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The current study revealed children’s view of the online games they play, the frequency and time spent on playing the games of their choice. Children prefer to play online games that have a certain theme: construction, logical, strategy. Female participants tend to prefer construction games (e.g., Minecraft) and male participants chose to play solo games where they are the main character in most cases. Logical and strategy type games are preferred by older children (10-11 years old). The children could also score the game by all the factors that the study used. They scored graphics, colors, characters, the action and the story among other visual characteristics of the game they chose to play. There was no correlation between gender/age and frequency of play time during the week. It would appear that with age the children tend to play less over a period of one week. Children prefer to have the role of a soldier/fighter when they chose to play followed by the role of leader or architect in terms of frequency. The results show that the children don’t have meaningful social interactions with other players online, even though some of them expressed that they would like some of their games to have more options for multiple players and exchange facilities provided in game. The majority of the children expressed a rather high level of opportunities for foreign language use in the game. This might be because most games are in English and children have the opportunity to either communicate with others or simply learn and exercise new terms in a foreign language while using the games menu, planning their strategies or level play. Almost none of the children considered that they have more friends since they started playing. The children either chose to play alone in the game, in teams with other people from other countries or simply with their current friends. Children’s emotional response to the games in question varies depending on the moment of the game. While in the game children express emotions of happiness, content and excitement, along with frustration and impatience. When losing a game almost half of the children express negative emotions (e.g., sadness, anger, disappointment). Some of the children also express positive emotions when feeling positive about the next time they will play also gives them a purpose for playing more and trying to win for “next time”. While considering the motivation for playing online games the children seem to care about their “friends” there, the action offered by the game, the logical aspect of the game and the skills they develop during the play. Like any games, online games provide a certain environment that looks more vivid to the imagination and offers plenty of opportunities for discovery.

Conclusion

The results of the study gave insight into certain levels of emotional and social interactions that the children have during online gaming. Virtual environments are created to give the user a certain level of emotional experience and while in the game this might seem as vivid as reality there is a trust that people and children can make the distinction between what is real and what is not real (Mousas et al., 2018). Being online has a particular influence on children who are more likely to see/hear inappropriate images/sounds which could impact them negatively (Staksrud et al., 2013). There is a considerable high chance of children being bullied when they have a public profile than children who don’t have an online presents. Preventing these types of actions can be made through correct information about the risks and threats that the online presents for the unadvised. To have an impact in the way children use the internet and online games, teachers and parents have to be prepared with honest answers and prevention methods tailored for each child. Considering the child starts using digital technology at a very young age his/hers every moment spent online and in online gaming has to be monitored to limit/avoid harmful information in reaching the child.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the children and parents from the classroom for their constant care, dedication and enthusiasm.

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